A citizens committee last week recommended closing Bryant, Uplands and Palisades elementary schools to save an estimated $2.2 million next year. The plan includes using Bryant as a part of Waluga Junior High School while sending sixth-graders to middle school.

Citing a smaller amount of savings -- about $850,000 -- and disruption to a larger amount of students, Hunter said the committee would stick by their original recommendation.

School board members have insisted that closing fewer or no schools is still on the table, especially as they consider additional support coming in from the community.

As the district gears up for an anticipated $5.5 million shortfall next year, the financial woes have helped galvanize citizens: the city council already voted to transfer about $1.2 million in city funds, while school foundation donations, which go toward teacher salaries, have already surpassed $2 million.

Numerous elementary school parents have criticized the three-school closure proposal since it first emerged as a serious possibility this fall, but a growing chorus of parents is now publicly supporting the plan, known as “Scenario B.”

Parent Holly Gosewehr said the budget was “in such severe shape that we need to do Scenario B.”

Defeated gubernatorial candidate and former Trail Blazer Chris Dudley, who is a Lake Oswego parent, also told the board that the district could not count on a similar level of support every year.

“I don’t think we can count on $2 million coming from the city every year and the foundation may not be at that level every year,” he said. “So we have to make a decision.”

Unsurprisingly, the meeting drew several parents who continued to push for a less disruptive plan. Buggsi Patel, who has children in the district’s ACCESS program, asked the board to consider how difficult the transition would be for special education students.

Al Nodarse, a parent who has helped with the foundation, urged the board to think about perception: if parents donated to the foundation in the hopes that their child's school would not be closed, how will they feel if the closure plan gets implemented?

“If it has to be that drastic, tell us why,” Nodarse said. “I think a lot of people in this community will be upset if we bridge this gap … and we still close three schools. It’s almost like no matter what we do, nothing’s going to give.”

Several, like Juliette Stoering, were skeptical that the consolidation committee had looked closely at a proposal closing one school.

But Hunter, the committee member, defended his own endorsement by explaining that the three-school closure plan was a “systemic fix” that would solve a funding problem stretching out of over several years.

In the end, Hunter said, he will support whichever model is chosen.

“I encourage the rest of the audience here to do the same,” he said. “No matter the choice, we’ve all got to come together and make the best with what we’ve got.”

The final decision will be made at next week’s meeting, which will start at 7 p.m. on April 25 at Lake Oswego High School, 2501 Country Club Road.